Wednesday, July 22, 2009

My baby girl turned two last Friday. She has been such a wonderful baby, and I am so glad I have had the privilege to be her momma.

Lacey has recently decided that talking isn't such a bad thing. She adds to her vocabulary daily. And not just little words- but some pretty complex bigger words too! Words like, Cereal, Seat belt, Lacey (Yacey), Grandma (Gan-naw), Grandpa, Blast Off, Church, Barney (I know- ::sigh::), parts of the Alphabet song (she's got the tune down, but she has A-G and the rest sound like either A or E), The itsy bitsy spider song, Old MacDonald, and The "I love you" Barney song.

On her actual birthday I took her to the pantry to choose her breakfast (I always pull down a box of cereal, and a box of instant oatmeal and let her choose what she wants). She turned her nose up at both breakfast options and pushed them out of her way, then she pointed to the top shelf and said, "No momma! Goo.. Kuh.. Cookie!" It was so cute (and it WAS her birthday) that I complied and she ate 3 Oreos for breakfast! And cookie was her new word of the day.

Lacey is so quiet, and sweet. She loves to cuddle, she adores her daddy, and is great at giving hugs and kisses. She is smart, and funny, and cute as a button! She loves to play with her sister Lilia (Eee-Yee-Uh), and has the most infectious laugh! She has a very mild attitude, and is pretty eay going. She keeps me on my toes, and keeps Lilia busy, and she loves to play pretend. Especially when Lil is pretending to be Lacey's mom and pushes Lacey around in the stroller or lays Lacey down for a nap.

I love my baby girl more than words can describe, and I look forward to many more fun years with my girls! Happy Birthday Lacey, we love you!

Lacey trying on her new nightgown from one of her grandmas.

Coloring in her new coloring book. She had to test drive EVERY gift. It was way cute!

She finally seems to have figured out the trick to opening the gifts without help.

Playing with doll #1, while momma unties doll #2. Seems her other two grandma's had the same idea!

The candles confused her. She loved being sung to, but was happy to just watch the flames rather than blow them out!

Momma and Lacey come to help her blow them out!

The cake was a homemade cake from Joe's mom. She made a sponge cake and topped it with chocolate covered strawberries. Quite yummy, and not too sugar loaded. Though I think Lacey would have preferred a chocolate cake, the rest of us enjoyed it! It is great to have such a wonderful family to spend my children's birthdays with!

We are getting our family pictures taken tonight. I usually am pretty excited about pictures. I love to get us all dressed up and cute lookin', than have someone capture pictures of us all at our best! I even went and had Lil's and my hair cut last week so we could be all pretty-fied for the pictures! BUT- I have been dreading it this time. Why? Because, I am too FAT for my pants!

Now anyone who knows me, knows I am a skin and bones kinda person. I am not fat. I have never been fat. And even at the peak of pregnancy, I am pretty skinny (besides the belly). But even skinny people, when pregnant, find that eventually their pants DON'T fit anymore! That is where I am right now. My normal pants are too small. And to make it worse, my maternity pants are WAY TOO BIG. I look like a little girl playing around in her mommy's pants. I hate this stage of pregnancy. I really really do. Is it too much to ask for cute pants that fit?! I mean really!

Well- I have recently inherited ALL my SIL's maternity clothes. They have been packed away in my basement since they had their last babies. I figured since I am supposed to look all cute tonight for the pictures, now would be a good time to go through all their clothes and find what I like, what I need, and what might just fit me now.

As I headed down to our completely unfinished basement, I had to shoo the kids upstairs to eat their breakfast (the kids like playing down there in the summer- it's nice and cool). So I head over to the corner of the basement holding all the maternity clothes and what do I find? No- not now, NOT TODAY! I was on the phone at the time, and my poor dear friend heard me totally freak out and start crying. I gathered up the cause of my tears, head upstairs. Set the cause down on a stool, and go in search of a camera, because as much as I am crying now, this will all be much funnier in a few months (or years).

Lilia, it seems, saw it fit to cut not just her hair, but Lacey's hair too! To say I was upset was an understatement. I fluctuated between anger and horror for the next half hour while I struggled with getting the kids dressed and ready to walk down to Great Clips for a hair "fix."

I don't have any really good before shots of either kid- I was smart enough to photograph the missing hair, but didn't think to snap a pic of the kids... so here are a couple of pics to give you some kind of idea...

Lilia last month. Just note the length of the hair and lack of bangs...

And Lilia NOW:

From the front it sorta reminds me of Hailey Mills in the original Parent Trap...

Yeah- it's very different. And it's gonna take some getting used to. Lilia was NOT thrilled with it. Maybe this will teach her not to cut her hair! :)

And then there is Lacey- before:

Now to give a bit of explanation, I know her hair is a bit unruly, but it was the perfect length for some super cute little pig tails on top of her head for tonight's pictures... And from the back- just so you get an idea of the length (this was from her birthday party)

The after pictures are going to have to wait until she wakes up from her nap- I'll post her pictures later... But lets just say she has bangs about as short as Lil's and they had to cut an inch off the back. So it looks a little more done, but I am not sure I will be able to put pig tails in her hair now. Especially since she has a bit of a baby comb over to cover a particularly short spot on the side...

On a brighter note? I DID find a cute pair of White Capri's for the pictures tonight. So at least our OUTFITS will look good!

** UPDATE!**

Here is Lacey after...

Complete with food on the face :)

Just an inch or so shorter... sad day for momma.

Cute baby side profile. The comb over is working it's magic to hide the short spot!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lilia has a problem. And I don't know what to do about it. If anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated!

The problem:

*The neighbors dog

Stats:

*Part pit bull (luckily not a pit bull head- so no locking jaw)

*Hates men

*Hates women

*Likes kids (supposedly) (My kid seems to be an exception)

*Spends 10-15 minutes outside every 2-3 hours chained to a metal chain in their yard.

The back story:

The neighbor boy let the dog out ONE TIME without a leash (accidentally) and it chased Lil down, cornered her on OUR porch and continued growling and slinking toward her before me and the owner of the dog could catch it and get it away. Since that time Lil is scared of the dog. Lil has two daily chores. They have been her chores for about a year now and up until this incident it has never been a problem. The chores- to take OUR dog outside to go potty twice a day and to get the mail.

The pattern of Lil's (growing) problem:

*Later that day, the neighbor came and took Lil to meet the dog. To convince Lil (and the dog) that there wasn't a problem. Lil was scared, but went, and came back afterward seeming fine.

*Throughout the following week Lil would check to see if the dog was outside before going out to do her chores. IF the dog was out, she would wait until it was back inside before completing the task at hand.

*One time, while grabbing the mail, the dog wasn't outside when she left our door, but by the time she had retrieved the mail, and turned to head inside, the dog had been put out on her chain (which when stretched to it's limit keeps the dog about 20 feet from our walk way). Lilia started crying, stopped dead in her tracks and wouldn't come back inside until I went out to walk with her up to our porch.

*From that point on, she would beg me to let her take the dog out the back door (meaning, opening the garage door so she could go out that way). At first I decided it would be easier to cater to her a bit. I can understand being scared of a big dog that chased her down...

*After a week or so of that, Lil began to worry that the dog would come out of the back of the house too, so she began to fuss if I made her do her chores at all. She had long since became petrified to get the mail at all, since you HAVE to get the mail from the mailbox in FRONT of our house.

* Eventually, the problem got so bad that I realized that catering to it was making it worse. So the catering stopped. Lil was told to do her chores. Period.

* A few days ago (over a month since the dog first came after my kid) Lil was told to take the dog outside to go potty, and she started to cry. I calmed her down and reassured her that the dog was not going to get her, and that the dog wasn't even outside. She began to cry that the dog MIGHT come outside. She was scared. I finally told her (after 10 minutes of trying to talk reason to her) that if she doesn't take the dog to go potty, than she wasn't going to be allowed to eat lunch until she had done her chore. She cried, and cried, and fussed, and begged, and over an HOUR later she finally attached our two leashes so that she wouldn't have to leave the porch to take the dog out, she than ran outside, gave the dog maybe 15 seconds and ran back in announcing that our pup didn't need to go potty.

* Yesterday we were gone all day. We got back from our day out at 7:30. I asked Lil to go get the mail for me, and she started in on the crying and fussing again. Same story. I gave her two choices- go get the mail, or go to bed- no dessert, no TV show, no book, no song, no bedtime routine at all, AND bedtime would be an hour early. Without hesitation she said, "Goodnight." (very sadly) and trudged off to bed.

*About 5 minutes later I did something that I thought might help. I noticed that the neighbor had brought her dog outside, so I went and got Lil. Her and I went outside (she was literally trembling). I held her hand and walked off our porch (She was pulling against me). I stepped onto our grass, and proceeded to walk from our property to the neighbors, bringing Lil with me. I got to where I was about 10 feet from the chained dog. The dog couldn't get any closer to us. And it was barking, but not growling or baring it's teeth at all... I made Lilia stand there with me. I talked calmly to Lil. I reassured her that the dog wouldn't be able to touch her. That she could go ANYWHERE in our yard or the front of our house and she was perfectly safe. I made eye contact with my neighbor and said, "Lilia- the dog will ALWAYS be on it's chain when it is outside. The neighbor's WON'T bring the dog out unless it is on a leash. (All the while the neighbor was shaking her head yes). After standing there for a couple minutes, I sent Lil to get the mail while I went back inside, and she did. No problem. She came inside with it, and seemed to be fine.

* This morning, I told Lil to take the dog out to go potty- and ::sigh:: she started crying. Our little venture last night didn't work AT ALL. I finally had to force her hand. If she couldn't take the dog out to go potty than we weren't going to go to the play date at our neighborhood park. She said that was fine since she didn't want to play at the park if the neighbor's dog was out. (The park is directly across the street from us)

Seriously!? I am at my wits end! The problem is getting WORSE! No amount of reassurance is working. There is no lack or privilege great enough to get her to do her chores and go outside. So far, it seems to only be this dog. No other dogs seem to bother her, but I am afraid her fear has turned into an unreasonable fear, and is QUICKLY becoming a phobia!

The whole fam

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About Me

Nothing special here, except the over use of emoticons :S and ellipses...I have two adorable girls, and one handsome little boy. I really like our family. Not just our kids, but the whole darn family. Siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents... you name 'em, I like 'em.